-
-
Join the open public debate on water commoditization-Economist.com
You can register there and give your opinion in an open debate on water commoditization up to October 10th. Vandana Shiva represents the con side, and someone named Steven Hoffman represents the pro side. This is a good opportunity to let your voice be heard about commoditization of water resources. And of course, it isn't any surprise to see DOW Chemical sponsoring this especially since they wish to buy desalination plants and probably wants to see privitization to hold back resources to spur the building of such plants. There is an all out assault on our resources by corporate America for profit now and we must fight it for our own survival. I firmly believe that now, and this open debate is where you can make your opinions known. I am registered there as 'waterahumanright.' Please participate and give the water justice movement and environmental democracy a hand.
Currently, the voting is: pro 40% / con 60%.
Thanks! You can register there and give your opinion in an open debate on water commoditization up to October 10th. Vandana Shiva represents t... more -
Jordan valley withers in wilderness of Mideast politics
The Ein Gedi spa, built 40 years ago on the shore of the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on Earth -- now offers a tractor shuttle to carry bathers across the kilometre (more than half a mile) of salt flats that separate it from the water's edge.
A few kilometres (a couple of miles) up the shore, a campsite that used to rent out cabins by the sea has been sucked underground by the opening of cavernous sinkholes, some more than 30 metres (yards) wide.
The first one burst open in 1998, swallowing a cabin and a cleaning woman.
"The earth swallowed her up. She fell nearly 10 metres. They made everyone leave that day and closed the camp down," says Gundi Shahal, an Israeli environmentalist who came to Ein Gedi from Germany in 1979.
"Since then it hasn't stopped. The whole campground looks like a moonscape," she says as she walks past the massive holes, one of which contains the rusted shell of a car.
Across the street are rows of dead trees, the remains of a date plantation that was closed because of the danger of the sinkholes.
Scientists have documented some 2,500 such holes, with an average of 300 new ones opening up each year.
As the Dead Sea shrinks, the level of groundwater drops and as it retreats under the surface it dissolves layers of salt, creating underground caverns that eventually collapse into the sinkholes.
The Dead Sea derives most of its water from the Jordan river, which over the past 50 years has virtually disappeared as a result of massive upstream water projects in Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
For Mohammed Saida, a farmer in the Palestinian village of Al-Auja some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ein Gedi, the Jordan river vanished completely when Israel fenced it off after seizing the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War.
The land his family once owned along the river is now in a closed military zone and they have to rely on village wells and a seasonal underground spring.
During the winter, the spring spouts up to 2,000 cubic metres (70,000 cubic feet) of water a day but in the summer and early autumn it is reduced to a squalid puddle.
"This valley floods every year, but we have no dams so it all goes into the Jordan," Saida says. Israel restricts the building of dams and drilling of wells by Palestinians in the West Bank.
At the foot of the valley sits a water pump freshly painted blue and white like the Israeli flag. Inside an engine pumps water for Israeli settlers and Al-Auja residents.
Per capita water consumption in the West Bank stands at 50 litres (around 13 gallons) a day, according to a World Bank report published this month, about two-thirds less than the target recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Israel uses around 83 percent of the water originating in the occupied territory, with the rest going to the Palestinians, whose annual water extraction has dropped by around 10 percent in the past decade, according to the same report.
"(The Israelis) took the entire river, their share and ours, they took the land, and now they are drilling wells to take our water," says Hussein Saida, Mohammed's cousin and a village councillor. "How can there be peace?"
Shahal and the Saidas belong to Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME), a group of environmentalists from Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank.
They have long lobbied for a project to rejuvenate the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea by using desalinated water from the Mediterranean to meet upstream demands.
But the idea getting the most attention, and dividing scientists and environmentalists, is the proposed construction of a massive canal between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea. The Ein Gedi spa, built 40 years ago on the shore of the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on Earth -- now offers a tractor shuttle to carr... more -
When it comes to water, Pickens is far from green
"While touting his plan to wean us off foreign oil, Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens says little of his intention to market fossil water. Thanks to help he obtained from the Texas Legislature, he has stacked the board of a tiny water district and by the power of eminent domain also granted him by the Legislature, he can force landowners to sell him rights to a 320-mile strip of land by which he will pipe the water down the same corridor to Dallas that he plans to use transmitting his wind power. But Pickens is just one of thousands of capitalists who sell precious Ogallala water for private gain. Like him, they are aided by government.
Pickens shouldn't be allowed to sell 65 billion gallons a year as he proposes, but neither should Plains farmers be allowed to pump 6.2 trillion gallons annually, over half of which is poured onto corn. With populations increasing and global warming likely to cause widespread drought, we should redirect the billions we spend on corn subsidies and take control from local water districts. Under federal or state control, we could end Texas's 'right of capture' policy, which parcels water to the landowner with the biggest pump."
Julene Bair is a writer and author of One Degree West: Reflections of a Plainsdaughter. She will soon complete Where Rivers Run Sand, a personal account of the crisis facing the Ogallala Aquifer.
From article byJulene Bair.
______________
How outrageous is this? That one man could use his wealth and political favors to secure ownership of what is a human right in order to sell it for his own profit. This is a blatant example of using the current water crisis we face for personal gain. People like T. Boone Pickens have no soul as far as I am concerned, and we now know the real story behind his so called green wind initiative.
Water for this plan would come from the panhandle section of the Ogallala Aquifer. As one of the largest underground aquifers in the world, the Ogallala runs from Texas to South Dakota and a century ago was said to hold more water than Lake Huron. Since then, cheap electric pumps gave farmers the power to bring water up hundreds of feet, and the depletion began. This aquifer waters a little over one-fifth of the nation's irrigated land, and is steadily being depleted due to population growth, overuse, ineffective agricultural methods that waste trillions of gallons a year, and now global warming/climate change in the form of drought. See my previous entry on this: Devastating Drought Settles On The High Plains. It is a ripe area for exploitation, and that is exactly what T. Boone Pickens is doing. He is hoping to sell this scarcer water at a high price to make a profit from it. A green venture? Hardly.
And the Ogallala isn't the same as rivers or lakes. There is no source of replenishment. It holds "fossil water" which has been sealed underground for hundreds of thousands of years. Once it's gone it's gone forever... again, forever. However, as the Ogallala Aquifer's water level continues to decline, Pickens is looking to expand its usage and more than likely that includes making even more profit agriculturally from ethanol production.
So the wind mills... a diversionary ruse on the part of an oil man posing as a green convert who supported George W. Bush to the hilt and is now being repaid for it at the expense of a precious resource now more precious than oil? A resource of the Ogallala that should not belong to him exclusively, or any one farmer over another. This is why Texas' 'right of capture' policy must be stopped in order to preserve the declining water level of the Ogallala Aquifer and to protect it from vulture capitalists who seek to steal it.
These states need to stand up for their water! "While touting his plan to wean us off foreign oil, Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens says little of his intention to market fos... more -
Water water everywhere, but what will we drink?
Many take water for granted, but as we all know we cannot live without it. However, much of it in the United States and other countries worldwide is polluted beyond human use. We have managed to pollute and toxify the very resource we need to survive, thereby reducing the amount of potable water in our world as our population continues to rise. This presents geopolitical issues as well as poverty, health, and social issues...especially as multi-nationals continue to buy up water for profit to control its distribution. Who decides who is worthy to have water? Who decides who is worthy to have clean potable water? Who decides who gets to live and who is to die? It is one thing to truly have water scarcity in the form of no water... but to see water all around you and not be able to drink or use it is truly a moral tragedy. Please do all you can to conserve this precious resource, and pass on to those in government that demanding corporate accountability for polluting our natural resources is something that should be more important than covering for their crimes. Climate change has now also been put into motion, so preserving the freshwater we have left is imperative to our continued survival.
Water is life.
Notice the ripples in the water as it moves constantly to the rhythm of life even as we kill it. This particular waterway was poisoned with Pcbs and dioxin to make Agent Orange during the Vietnam war. We don't see any fish here anymore.
Is this the legacy we are going to leave for the future? I sure hope not.
Thanks for listening to this. Many take water for granted, but as we all know we cannot live without it. However, much of it in the United States and other countrie... more -
Coalition emerges to protect Great Lakes against private exploitation
The U.S Congress House Judiciary Committee approved the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement between the 8 states of the Great Lakes Basin, which lays out takings guidelines from major water supplies in that area for use by large scale projects and private enterprise. Yet many of the exceptions outlined in the Compact are bad for consumers and the environment. A coalition between Food & Water Watch and the Council of Canadians has issued a set of recommendations in response to the Compact to ensure that water remains a public resource and is not subject to the exploitation of profit-hungry corporations.
The Compact could be a great step forward to protect the Great Lakes, said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. However, there are serious concerns with the exceptions laid out in the Compact, such as those allowing the packaging and sale of Great Lakes water as a product for private gain and explicitly exempting bottled water. Furthermore, the Compact fails to incorporate the Public Trust doctrine that protects Great Lakes basin waters from private export and sale and protects these waters from claims to the water as a product under international trade laws.
The Public Trust doctrine affirms that water is a public resource that must be managed by the state governments in trust for the benefit of citizens, yet it was omitted from the Compact despite calls from citizens to include it. This is a very important concept, said Maude Barlow, founder of the Council of Canadians and renowned activist. This was born out of the recognition that publicly owned natural resources are essential to meet the basic needs of all citizens and communities, regardless of economic status.
While the Compact does ban large-scale diversions from the Great Lakes, it excludes water in small containers and water as a product in any size container from that ban, leaving it vulnerable to packaging by commercial interests. Containers less than 5.7 gallons are considered small, said Hauter. But as long as the water is considered a product, it establishes a precedent that water can be grabbed by profit-hungry corporations who want to claim it is a product not subject to the Compact. This undermines the very purpose of the Compact and creates a dangerous precedent for exporting water in the U.S., in this instance from the largest body of freshwater in North America.
~~~~~~
Once again we see Congress going along with corporate interests, this time concerning our water. If you care about the Great Lakes remaining a public trust, please write to your congressman. The organization in the article, Food and Water Watch, has already issued 6000 letters to Congress calling for the Great Lakes to remain a public trust in the interest of the citizens. There is an all out assault by corporations to control our food and water. We cannot allow Congress to hand it to them on a silver platter. The U.S Congress House Judiciary Committee approved the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement between the 8 states of the Great Lakes Basi... more -
California attorney general cracks down on Nestle water bottling plant plans
Attorney General Jerry Brown on Tuesday said he will sue to block a proposed water-bottling operation in Northern California unless its effects on global warming are evaluated.
Nestle Waters North America wants to pump about 200 million gallons of water a year from three natural springs that supply McCloud, about 280 miles north of San Francisco. Brown's office said that's enough to fill 3.1 billion 8-ounce plastic water bottles.
The water would be bottled at a 350,000-square-foot facility on the outskirts of the former lumber town.
The Swiss-based company scaled back its plans in May after years of opposition from environmentalists and a group of McCloud residents. It originally sought to pump more than double the amount of water.
David Palais, Nestle's Northern California natural resource manager, said the company already was planning studies on air and water quality, hazardous materials, traffic conditions and climate change for a new environmental review of the bottling plant.
"We appreciate the attorney general's letter and share his commitment to ensuring that new projects in California do not negatively impact the environment," Palais said in a statement.
He said the company will conduct environmental studies over the next two or three years. Afterward, Siskiyou County will prepare a new environmental impact report for the project.
Brown said the company must put its revisions into a new contract with the town of McCloud. He wants proper study of the environmental consequences of the bottling operation, saying the previous draft review had "serious deficiencies."
He said it failed to include an examination of whether the operation will contribute to global warming through the production of plastic bottles, the operation's electrical demands and the diesel soot and greenhouse gas emissions produced by trucks traveling to and from the plant.
"It takes massive quantities of oil to produce plastic water bottles and to ship them in diesel trucks across the United States," Brown said in a statement. "Nestle will face swift legal challenge if it does not fully evaluate the environmental impact of diverting millions of gallons of spring water from the McCloud River into billions of plastic water bottles."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This boggles my mind. California is in a drought in most of the state with more wildfires reported this year, and all Nestle can think of is pumping millions of gallons of water from a spring to put it in plastic bottles to make a profit from it? Another company without a moral center! Attorney General Jerry Brown on Tuesday said he will sue to block a proposed water-bottling operation in Northern California unless it... more -
Facing The Freshwater Crisis
From Scientific American:
Key points:
Global freshwater resources are threatened by rising demands from many quarters.
Growing populations need ever more water for drinking, hygiene, sanitation, food production and industry.
Climate change, meanwhile, is expected to contribute to droughts.
Policymakers need to figure out how to supply water without degrading the natural ecosystems that provide it.
Existing low-tech approaches can help prevent scarcity, as can ways to boost supplies, such as improved methods to desalinate water.
But governments at all levels need to start setting policies and making investments in infrastructure for water conservation now.
A friend of mine lives in a middle-class neighborhood of New Delhi, one of the richest cities in India. Although the area gets a fair amount of rain every year, he wakes in the morning to the blare of a megaphone announcing that freshwater will be available only for the next hour. He rushes to fill the bathtub and other receptacles to last the day. New Delhi’s endemic shortfalls occur largely because water managers decided some years back to divert large amounts from upstream rivers and reservoirs to irrigate crops.
My son, who lives in arid Phoenix, arises to the low, schussing sounds of sprinklers watering verdant suburban lawns and golf courses. Although Phoenix sits amid the Sonoran Desert, he enjoys a virtually unlimited water supply. Politicians there have allowed irrigation water to be shifted away from farming operations to cities and suburbs, while permitting recycled wastewater to be employed for landscaping and other nonpotable applications.
As in New Delhi and Phoenix, policymakers worldwide wield great power over how water resources are managed. Wise use of such power will become increasingly important as the years go by because the world’s demand for freshwater is currently overtaking its ready supply in many places, and this situation shows no sign of abating. That the problem is well-known makes it no less disturbing: today one out of six people, more than a billion, suffer inadequate access to safe freshwater. By 2025, according to data released by the United Nations, the freshwater resources of more than half the countries across the globe will undergo either stress—for example, when people increasingly demand more water than is available or safe for use—or outright shortages. By midcentury as much as three quarters of the earth’s population could face scarcities of freshwater.
Scientists expect water scarcity to become more common in large part because the world’s population is rising and many people are getting richer (thus expanding demand) and because global climate change is exacerbating aridity and reducing supply in many regions. What is more, many water sources are threatened by faulty waste disposal, releases of industrial pollutants, fertilizer runoff and coastal influxes of saltwater into aquifers as groundwater is depleted. Because lack of access to water can lead to starvation, disease, political instability and even armed conflict, failure to take action can have broad and grave consequences.
end of excerpt.
My comments at the link. From Scientific American: Key points: Global freshwater resources are threatened by rising demands from many quarters. ... more -
The Privitization Of Our Water Not Covered By The MSM
Imagine, that we are beyond the energy crisis-in that we are used to paying double or triple prices for what in the previous century was a small part of the family budget. But now we are faced with a new shortage that taps another precious resource. Water only comes through the tap fours hours a day and we are forced to pay ten to hundred times what we paid in the 90s. Welcome to the world of privatized water, where fresh water is treated like a commodity, traded and sold in the international market to the highest bidder.
No longer can you assume a God-given right to drink from a mountain spring, but instead you will have to pay a toll to drink from Enron Springs, Monsanto Wells or receive tap water from Bechtel Water Works. Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people already lack access to fresh drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 percent more than the amount of water that is currently available.
Multinational corporations recognize these trends and are trying to monopolize water supplies around the world. Monsanto, Bechtel, Enron and other global multinationals are seeking control of world water systems and supplies. The World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing. This policy is causing great distress in many Third World countries, which fear that their citizens will not be able to afford for-profit water.
Last year in a little known case of high scale international water marketing, a supertanker was reported to have filled up with water from Lake Erie and after paying the Canadian Government they shipped the water to Southeast Asia. Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy group, states, "Governments around the world must act now to declare water a fundamental human right and prevent efforts to privatize, export, and sell for profit a substance essential to all life. Research has shown that selling water on the open market only delivers it to wealthy cities and individuals. The finite sources of freshwater (less than one half of one per cent of the world's total water stock) are being diverted, depleted, and polluted so fast that, by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will be living in a state of serious water deprivation."
Governments are signing away their control over domestic water supplies by participating in trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and in institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). These agreements give transnational corporations the unprecedented right to the water of signatory countries.
Monsanto plans to earn revenues of $420 million and a net income of $63 million by 2008 from its water business in India and Mexico. Monsanto estimates that water will become a multibillion-dollar market in the coming decades.
This international water crisis news story was selected by over 150 faculty and student researchers at Sonoma State University's Project Censored in California as the number one most censored news story for 2000.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And this is still being censored by the MSM. Just as multinationals move to control our food, they are doing the same to "own" water which is a human right and the MSM is an accomplice to it by not educating the public to what is going down. The MSM is however more than happy to advertise "clean coal" and nuclear, and propaganda by oil companies making us believe they care about this planet as they ravage it. So, for me Current is the only place where this news can be seen to hopefully bring awareness about what is going down... we are being bought and sold and the very substance of our survival along with it. So the question is: what are we going to do about it? Imagine, that we are beyond the energy crisis-in that we are used to paying double or triple prices for what in the previous century w... more -
Pacific Institute:Extreme Weather Events Will Increasingly Affect US Water Supply
With global warming, there is an increased risk of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves,” according to the Congressional testimony of Heather Cooley, senior research associate of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. Cooley’s testimony was provided to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming for the hearing on Climate Change and Extreme Events on Thursday, July 10.
“Floods and droughts are a natural part of the climate system, but we are seeing a growing body of scientific analysis indicating it is likely that climate change will vastly increase stresses on our water systems,” Cooley testified. “We are essentially ‘loading the dice’ and increasing the probability that these types of events will increase in frequency and intensity.”
snip
Cooley made several recommendations for mitigating the impact of extremes on communities and water supplies, citing the need for water conservation, improved weather-monitoring efforts, and better planning and preparedness for floods and droughts. In addition to her remarks, she presented written testimony to the Select Committee addressing the need for adaptation to be a central element of all climate-change policy.
Such adaptation measures include:
-Water managers must re-evaluate engineering designs, operating rules, contingency plans, and water-allocation policies, including taking into account their energy and greenhouse-gas implications.
-New water infrastructure must be designed and built incorporating expected climate change over the expected life of the project.
-Water and energy issues must be better integrated, and water agencies should partner with other agencies to seek combined solutions to water, energy, and greenhouse-gas problems.
“Climate change will have a significant impact on freshwater resources, affecting availability, timing, reliability, and quality,” Cooley testified, “and water conservation and efficiency are particularly attractive adaptation options.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This will be the greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century. We must plan now. With global warming, there is an increased risk of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves,” according to the ... more -
Nestle water plant? Not in our town, Enumclaw says
Last spring, in the small town of Enumclaw, a company came calling. What it wanted was water. One hundred million gallons a year, to be precise.
It would pay nicely for the privilege. It would set up a bottling plant and provide jobs for the people. If only somebody, somewhere in Enumclaw, would listen to what Nestlé Waters North America had to say.
But it was not to be.
Last month, without so much as a public hearing, Enumclaw sent a message to the multinational corporation: Go tap someone else's spring.
In the past several years, as the bottled-water industry has boomed, Nestlé has set up 26 plants in towns across the country, tapping into local springs. Enumclaw was its first shot at a Northwest plant.
It did not go well. As word spread of the proposal, residents unleashed a torrent of e-mails and letters to the local paper, concerned about a possible water shortage, the potential for invasive corporate control and the damage plastic bottles can do to the environment.
"This is such an incredibly bad idea, I can't believe that the city of Enumclaw would even consider such a thing," one area resident, Diane Hanes, wrote to the city administrator. "The residents of Enumclaw will not stand for this."
~~~~~~~
Yes!. People are pushing back to preserve their water resources from corporatization for profit. Hands off Nestle! Last spring, in the small town of Enumclaw, a company came calling. What it wanted was water. One hundred million gallons a year, to b... more -
Bottled water industry faces growing opposition
Last week’s decision by a York County water board to delay a vote on whether to sell municipal water to Nestle Corp., the owner of Poland Spring, did not happen in a vacuum.
* Last month in McCloud, Calif., after encountering opposition to what would have been the largest water bottling plant in the country, Nestle announced plans to significantly reduce the plant’s size.
* Earlier this month in Enumclaw, Wash., the city council rejected a proposal to allow Nestle to build another such plant.
* And last Monday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors voted to phase out use of bottled water for municipal employees.
Across the country, opposition to bottled water is building, amid growing concerns about the industry’s environmental impact and rising fears about private control of public water supplies.
“There’s no question that there is a groundswell,” said Ruth Caplan, coordinator of Defending Water for Life, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign that opposes the bottled water industry.
There are several reasons for the backlash to bottled water. Some of it is driven by fears about global warming - given the amount of oil needed to bottle and transport the water.
Some stems from concerns about the chemical makeup of plastic water bottles.
Some of the opposition is a byproduct of the huge price disparity between bottled water and the kind of water that comes from the tap for free.
Here in Maine, some of the local opposition to Poland Spring’s operations has stemmed from the traffic generated by the trucks that transport the water.
Perhaps the biggest factor, though, is a fear that as bottled water becomes more popular, private corporations are gaining more control over a natural resource that is central to life.
“The fundamental issue is, who owns the water?” said Jim Olson, an attorney for Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, which has been engaged in a legal battle with Nestle. “If this company gets to do it, all companies get to do it, and you’re not going to be able to say no in the future.”
~~~~~~~~~~
We need to stop the commoditization of this resource which is the lifeblood of the Earth. Water is a human right. It cannot be bought by Nestle at the expense of the poor in countries where water is already scarce. It is a good sign to see people finally standing up to these companies. Last week’s decision by a York County water board to delay a vote on whether to sell municipal water to Nestle Corp., the owner of Pol... more -
Living with water scarcity: world must act now
Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind over the next 50 years. "With earth's water, land and human resources it is possible to produce enough food for the future - but it is probable that today's food production and environmental trends will lead to crises in many parts of the world" says David Molden Deputy Director General of the International Water Management Institute.
This is the opening prognosis given in the Earthscan publication Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. The Assessment, the first of its kind, brings together the work of over 700 specialists from hundreds of institutes around the world into the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of water and food ever written, critically examining policies and practices of water use and development in the agricultural sector over the last 50 years.
Spearheaded by International Water Management Institute (IWMI), one of 15 CGIAR agricultural research centres striving to increase food production, increase rural incomes, and safeguard the environment, the report is co-sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), FAO, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the Convention on Biological Diversity in a bid to find solutions to the challenge of balancing the water-food-environment needs.
The assessment finds that 1/3 of the world's population live in areas where water scarcity must be reckoned with. While much of this water scarcity cannot be avoided, water problems can be averted through better water management.
Growing cities take more water, and environmental concerns are rising. A water-food-environment dilemma. Water use in agriculture is recognized as one of the major drivers of ecosystem degradation, causing habitat loss, drying up of rivers, and reduction in groundwater levels. Flows in the Colorado River in USA, the Yellow River in China, the Indus in India and Pakistan - all important food producing areas - dry up because of the water needed for irrigated agriculture. Clearly limiting agricultural water use is key for environmental sustainability. Therein lies the dilemma. More people require more water for more food; more water is essential in the fight against poverty; yet we should limit the amount of water taken from ecosystems.
snip
Since climate change is expected to hit these areas hard, better water systems will be a key to helping people cope with dry spells. Poverty, hunger, gender inequality, and environmental degradation continue to afflict developing countries not because of technical failings but because of political and institutional failings. There is need for drastic reform in the water sector. Governments must lead the reform process, but ironically state institutions themselves are in greatest need of reform. While water scarcity is here to stay, many of the problems associated with water scarcity can be avoided.
This will require that we deal with difficult choices and tradeoffs. Reconciling competing demands on water requires informed negotiations by the many stakeholders involved in water with transparent sharing of information. "The hope is in realizing the unexplored potential that lies in better water management along with non-miraculous changes in policy and production techniques" says Margaret Catley Carleson, Chair of the Global Water Partnership, "but world leaders must take action now." As Sunita Narain, 2005 Stockholm Water Prize Winner says, "this issue must become the world's obsession." Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind ov... more -
Bringing clean water to Ethiopians
Photographs of Water First and Water Action bringing clean running water to a village in Southern Ethiopia for the first time. This is what we are on this Earth for. Photographs of Water First and Water Action bringing clean running water to a village in Southern Ethiopia for the first time. This is... more
-
Dr. Vandana Shiva: Now Monsanto Is After Our Water
For years now, Monsanto has been buying up seed, plant and biotech companies in order to establish control over the world's food. According to Mr Robert Farley of Monsanto, "what you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it's really a consolidation of the entire food chain. Since water is as central to food production as seed is, and without water life is not possible, Monsanto is now trying to establish its control over water. During 1999, Monsanto plans to launch a new water business, starting with India and Mexico, since both these countries are facing water shortages."
In other words, the crisis of pollution and depletion of water resources is viewed by Monsanto as a business opportunity:
"The business logic of sustainable development is that population growth and economic development will apply increasing pressure on the natural resource markets... These are the markets that are most relevant to us as a life sciences company committed to delivering food, health and hope to the world, and there are markets in which there are predictable sustainability challenges and therefore opportunities to create business value."
The crisis of pollution and depletion of water resources
is viewed by Monsanto as a business opportunity.
By 2010 about 2.5 billion people in the world are projected to lack access to safe drinking water. At least 30 per cent of the population in China, India, Mexico and the US is expected to face severe water stress. By 2025, the supply of water in India will be 700 cubic km per year, while the demand is expected to rise to 1,050 units. Control over this scarce and vital resource will, of course, be a source of guaranteed profits. As John Bastin of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has said, "Water is the last infrastructure frontier for private investors."
~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Vandana Shiva, author of the book, Water Wars, and renowned environmentalist and activist for environmental democracy knows full well of the intentions of Monsanto. Their true intent must be brought to light to as many people as possible. Their intent is world domination of food and water sources at the expense of many lives by taking advantage of others' misery for their own economic benefit. And it isn't just control of the seeds, it is control of the water that grows them. Insidious. For years now, Monsanto has been buying up seed, plant and biotech companies in order to establish control over the world's food.... more -
Our Water Future
Since I began posting to this blog almost two years ago, we have seen much happen in the world of water. We have seen the steady decline of water safety and democracy worldwide with glacier melt threatening the water supplies of millions becoming more prevalent. Drought is an affliction that has now enveloped close to 40% of our planet. We have seen the effects of ethanol production as it now is revealed to be nothing more than a corporate/political scam set upon us to deplete our food and water sources which has caused riots in many developing areas of the world. Corporatization of our public trust is increasing, with political power looking to gain control over world water resources as they did oil. The outlook after seeing all of this may seem bleak.
However, we have seen some positive things come about as well. More people than ever are becoming aware of the global water crisis and water justice movement. More are standing up to the bottled water interests and demanding not only accountability but boycotting the bottle and they are feeling the pinch. The effects of citizen activism are being felt worldwide as information and truth seeps its way across the Internet to the hearts and minds of people who are now more awakened and empowered to take action to preserve this planet and our precious resources.
And that must continue, for the task before us is monumental. For times are bleak across much of the world particularly in Africa and Asia where water resources become scarcer due to corruption, mismanagement, climate change, and pollution, and where the ability to speak out against it is but a dream. Therefore, caring about water and its future is a global duty.
It is incumbant upon all of us as citizens of the world to ask questions, research, demand accountability, and work for water justice. That includes clean, safe, healthy sources that seek to bring not only health but peace to areas of the world where running water is the greatest gift they could have to sustain their bodies, their minds and their souls, which is true freedom.
So while I look out on the landscape of the planet and see an encroaching crisis, I also see an unprecedented opportunity for the human race to find within itself the will and courage to save itself. And the continued flow of information, truth, and opportunity will surely aid in that goal.
We must not relent in seeing an international convention on water declaring it a human right and setting the standards for addressing this right and fulfilling the goals and obligations that will lead to true water justice.
As Maude Barlow states here, "the right to water is an idea whose time has come."
UN ConventionTo The Right To Water
That time is now. Since I began posting to this blog almost two years ago, we have seen much happen in the world of water. We have seen the steady decli... more -
Fighting The Corporate Theft Of Our Water
The article linked in the entry noted above is a most comprehensive look at the schemes involved in buying up our public trust to keep us hostage. And it is happening now, and in this country under the radar.
With their insatiable desire, for profit corporations globally are going too far regarding infringing on a resource that is not their own. What gives a corporation the right to come into any state and take the ground water and use it to make a profit for themselves by selling it elsewhere? A resource that is a fundamental human right? This will happen more and more in the United States however, as water resources become more depleted elsewhere and demand for bottled water increases. It is a problem we must deal with now, especially also in light of changes predicted from the climate crisis should conditions remain the same or worsen as governments collude with corporations to control dwindling resources in order to extort higher prices to make a profit.
Just look at the climate crisis and the affects of it already being felt globally (with Darfur a clear example of how far environmental devastation can go and its effects.) The Bush regime knows full well the truth about this crisis and the extent of it, and that is why I believe they are purposefully fronting a disinformation campaign to keep doubt in the minds of people as to its true repercussions in order to buy up the water resources in the meantime before people enmasse truly wake up.
This is why the politics of fear and secrecy is so important to address and fight, because it is affecting our very ability to survive.
And it is not only the privitization of our resources that we must be concerned about. The water bottling industry in this country alone is a 400 billion dollar industry. It pulls in three times more than the pharmaceutical industry and demand is rising. So as population rises and demand rises with it worldwide freshwater resources will begin to dwindle to satisy the demand, and once it's gone it's gone. One in six Americans drink only bottled water. Moreso, bottled water is often not what it appears to be.
Corporations spend millions of dollars promoting it as safe, clean, healthy, and superior in quality to tap water, while many popular brands actually come from our public taps. A Natural Resources Defense Council study found that bottled water is no more "pure" or safe than tap water. The bottled water industry is also the least regulated industry in the US. And it can be seen by the price which in many cases is marked up to cost more per gallon than gasoline! Which of course makes those in this industry very happy, but at what price to us in the costs it brings to our land and to our global environment? Do they truly have the universal right to simply use this precious resource for their own profit over the needs of others?
It was Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle which sponsored the World Water Forum which took place last March, and they account for half the global bottled water market. And they are also pushing for privatization of water resources with the World Bank backing them up. I think you get the picture.
Water should remain a public trust controlled by local government at the behest of the taxpayers. It should also be declared a fundamental human right. It is the utter insensitivity and indifference of these companies overshadowed by their greed that makes this all so unfair and so morally wrong. I believe there need to be more stringent guidelines in allowing just anyone with a permit to take water out of the ground. Again, the taxpayers of any state should have rights over corporations who come in simply to raid their water resources for profit and privitize their systems. So we must keep fighting to see the day when water, that most sacred, beautiful, and life sustaining force is treated with the respect it should be treated with and used to give life to all equally who need it. The article linked in the entry noted above is a most comprehensive look at the schemes involved in buying up our public trust to keep... more -
U.S. And Canada Refuse To Recognize Water As A Human Right
The resolution, which will be voted on within the week, is currently being debated at the UNHRC session in Geneva that ends on March 28. Canada has presented numerous objections that have been echoed by the United States.
As it stands, Canada and the United States are the only two countries to go on record at the United Nations to oppose the right to water.
Canada is a member of the UNHRC until 2009; the United States is not an elected member but is allowed to engage under the rules of the Council.
The joint resolution promoted by Germany and Spain aims to establish a "special rapporteur" with the mandate to provide guidance on the right to water and sanitation, identify best practices, investigate country situations and promote the right internationally.
This follows a report by Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stating that "specific, dedicated and sustained attention to safe drinking water and sanitation is currently lacking at the international level" and recommending that access to safe drinking water and sanitation be recognized as a human right.
Canada is working to weaken the resolution by demanding that references to the right to water and sanitation be removed and that the scope be reduced. Canada wants the proposed position of "special rapporteur" to be downgraded to "independent expert" serving for only one year instead of the proposed three years. Canada is also opposing visits by this expert to individual countries and the granting of a mandate enabling them to clarify the content of the right to water and sanitation.
This is the third time in six years that member nations of the UN have pushed for recognition of the human right to water. On each occasion, Canada has rejected the efforts to have water recognized as a right.
end of excerpt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NAFTA needs to be scrapped. To not recognize water as a human right is to condemn millions of people to drought, famine, and death, and leave the water they do have at the mercy of corporate raiders and political corruption. NAFTA has done nothing but reap benefits for the governments, but given little to nothing to the people. Water is not a commodity and not an investment, it is a human right and trust! The resolution, which will be voted on within the week, is currently being debated at the UNHRC session in Geneva that ends on March 2... more -
Today Is World Water Day...What will you do?
Today, March 22, is World Water Day. The theme for this year is sanitation. Every 15 seconds another child dies in this world from a waterborne disease due to lack of potable water and proper sanitation. This is the most crucial environmental crisis we face along with the climate crisis, and water shortages in many parts of our world due to lack of infrastructure, mismanagement of resources, and now climate change only lend to this crisis.
Please, take time today to do something to take action to save water and call for clean water for the children of our world. I will be sending letters to my Senators today and also sending a message to all of the presidential candidates to stand up for water and to make its conservation and availability and sanitation part of their environmental platforms, and that includes not supporting energy sources that pollute our waterways ( like coal and nuclear.)
Also, take a look at this site: http://www.water.org and consider pledging to give clean water to those in our world who need it. Water is our most precious resource. Water is life.
Thank you Today, March 22, is World Water Day. The theme for this year is sanitation. Every 15 seconds another child dies in this world from a w... more -
The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right To Water
Maude Barlow is co-founder of the Blue Planet Project and a very vocal advocate for clean water for all. Her new book (The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water) lays out three main plans that must be instituted in order for our planet to avert a catastrophe regarding this crisis that according to the UN should be our top priority which include: Water conservation, water justice, and water democracy. We must as a global community see beyond the borders to the moral courage necessary to conserve and share this precious resource, as well as working on a treaty like the one we hope to see regarding the climate crisis that sets goals for conservation, sharing of resources, providing technology necessary to developing countries that helps them with conserving through agriculture, infrastructure, and basic education. And most importantly, declaring access to clean water a human right.This along with the climate crisis is the most crucial environmental issue we will face in this century. For me it is the most crucial because without water there is no life. Maude Barlow is co-founder of the Blue Planet Project and a very vocal advocate for clean water for all. Her new book (The Global Wate... more
-
Thirst: Fighting The Corporate Theft of Our Water
Is water a human right, or merely just another commodity to be traded on the global markets? To companies like Suez it is a commodity to be used for its own profit at the expense of the poor... to millions around the globe from Stockton, California to Bolivia however, it is what it rightfully should be: a human right, and a right worth fighting for. This documentary is a truthful depiction of the corporatization of that human right and a look at those citizens who are fighting back. I highly recommend it. Just today I read that Suez is looking for a chunk of water in Southwestern China to privatize to add to its other conquests. These companies are loving the water shortages as they seek to gain profit from them. We the people however, must stand up for our right to water because it is as essential to us as Democracy... which we also thirst for. Is water a human right, or merely just another commodity to be traded on the global markets? To companies like Suez it is a commodity ... more
-
